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Luke Kawa

GameStop plans to sell off French and Canadian operations, giving its cash pile more space to shine

This probably wasn’t the GameStop pivot you were looking for.

In a statement this morning, the video game retailer announced that it intends to sell its operations in both France and Canada as part of a reevaluation of its international footprint. Shares are little changed in premarket trading.

GameStop bulls have been primarily focused on what a Ryan Cohen-led company could buy with a $4.6 billion pile of liquid assets, not what he could sell. Some collectibles businesses have been floated as possible acquisition targets. More recently, the possibility of using that money on hand to buy bitcoin caused the stock to ramp, helped along by a picture Cohen posted with himself and Strategy CEO Michael Saylor as well as media reports on the topic.

Expense control isn’t necessarily as sexy as adding bitcoin to a corporate treasury. But expense control — unlike forays into crypto — is something management has been able to successfully execute on in a way that’s unlocked the ability to generate net income.

Quarterly adjusted operating costs are down about 13% since Cohen took over as CEO in September 2023, continuing a trend that’s seen the four-quarter average of these expenses halved from their 2016 peak to hit their lowest level since 2007.

The company’s core business of selling video games has been a consistently unprofitable endeavor as of late, with the firm failing to book an annual operating profit since 2020.

If you think of GameStop as a relatively high-cost T-Bill fund masquerading as a retailer, these kind of measures are what give its cash pile more leverage to be a bigger driver of its total bottom-line results.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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